Poverty in Brazil as billions of dollars spent on preparations for the World Cup:

Image (Weebly): One of the largest slums in the Brazillian city - Sao Paulo - is known as'Paraisópolis Favela' which has approximately 55,000 inhabitants. The image to the left shows the edge of the slum area juxtoposed against the face of extravaent wealth represented by the row of ultra modern condominiums that stretches across the skyline.

In many third world countries, corruption plays a significant role in how governments function and in some cases in how governments and related third party interests thrive financially while the masses live on in poverty. One example of this type of corruption on a colossal scale occurred recently in Brazil, where the cost of corruption In 2013 alone was estimated to be up to US$53 Billion. Appoximately 35 perent of the entire country of Brazil lives in poverty on average earnings of less than $2 per day. Worse yet, poverty in Brazil’s rural areas includes a whopping 51 per cent of the inhabitants which equates to about 18 million people in the poor rural category, the Western Hemisphere's largest concentrated poor population. But instead of the government focussing on providing its poorest with the basic essentials of life including food, housing, education and medical services, the government has clearly placed more emphasis on attempting to bolster its international image through sponsoring the corruption ridden World Cup sporting event than by doing the right thing by coming to the aid of its poorest. The most conservative estimates put at $11.7 billion the total investments by the government on the World Cup, US$4 billion alone on 12 new and refurbished stadiums, more than three times the cost initially projected and the most expensive World Cup ever, largely due to fraud and suspicious ties between politicians and contractors.

Reaction to the world cup by Brazilians is mixed with many actually boycotting the event. The image above left was drawn by a Brazillian street artist who was amazed at the overwhelming international response to his world cup vs poverty message through this simple but masterful work of art.

Image: A Brazil street artist Paulo Ito showing a starving boy with a football for food as symbolic of the general sentiment expressed by the lesser privileged in Brazil who received little if any benefit from Brazil hosting the World Cup. Photograph: Nelson Almeida/AFP﻿﻿